In the trades, the apprenticeship model has been the way that workers go from being a greenhorn to becoming a master of the craft. It has been used for centuries in many different cultures as a way to pass skills from generation to generation so that trade craft can continue and improve. In many businesses, however, the idea of an apprenticeship model seems foreign. It can become a great way for many companies to promote from within, however, which builds loyalty in your work force and improves service quality as well.
If you do promote from within your own ranks regularly, you’ve probably already adopted a sort of apprenticeship model without realizing it. When you pair the promoted employee with a seasoned one to “show them the ropes,” you’re using a sort of apprentice model. You can solidify that by building training tools to go with the pairing.
— Building An Apprenticeship Model
Just pairing old hats with new recruits is not enough to make a model work. In fact, it can mean numerous problems. Before you begin, set up ground rules and basic training for your soon-to-be mentors before giving them greenhorns to raise up.
This initial training will set ground rules and legalities, of course, helping to solidify conduct expectations, but it will also allay most of the fears would-be mentors often have about “training replacements”. Reassuring them that they are not being replaced, but merely adding colleagues (or even setting themselves up for promotion) will keep these fears at bay.
Your initial training can be in the form of an informal or “quick” one-on-one meeting with each mentor or as a group session. One-on-one meetings are time-consuming, but often are the best option to keep confidence high. Most of the detail aspects (conduct, etc.) can be given in written form rather than as a presentation, cutting meeting time and allowing legalities to be covered.
— Beginning the Process
It’s likely that your new mentors will already have some understanding of those who work around them and will be able to suggest candidates for promotion into the apprenticeship program. If this is possible, it will likely be the best route towards choosing them as the pairings are more likely to mean fewer personality clashes and are less likely to have resentments.
The option of personally choosing the most likely candidates, of course, can also be used by the manager. In some cases, it may be required or the process may need to be formalized with skills testing or background and experience verification.
However it’s done, you should have the apprenticeship be clearly contingent on performance so that if the new apprentice cannot live up to minimal expectations of learning or development, he or she will return to the former position so another likely candidate can be promoted.
— Monitoring Progress
Throughout the training program, management should keep an eye on the process and development of the apprentices and the growing leadership abilities of the new mentors as well. Further, a company which adopts this model will not only benefit from the improved employee loyalty and stronger, more detailed workforce, but will also find that it leads to better promotion throughout all the ranks (including management) as those well-qualified for the position, but lacking the formal education often thought to be required, are found.
As you watch the progress of your employees’ growth, you’ll realize that the talent pool you’ve recruited (and continue to foster) will grow as much as you allow it to.